Skills you should have by age 5. We call it keyboarding now.
https://www.makeuseof.com/learn-or-practice-faster-touch-typing-on-computers/
5 Sites to Learn or Practice Faster Touch Typing on Computers
50 things to do while hiding from the pandemic. (What to do next week?)
https://beerandbrewing.com/best-in-beer-readers-choice-top-50-beers-of-2020/
Best in Beer Readers’ Choice: Top 50 Beers of 2020
But it really, really sounds true!
Twitter and White House deny claims that researcher hacked Trump’s account
A security researcher claims he hacked President Donald Trump’s Twitter account earlier this month, guessing that his password was “maga2020!” and possibly posting a tweet where Trump appeared to take a satirical article seriously. Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant and magazine Vrij Nederland reported the news earlier today, citing screenshots and interviews with the researcher, Victor Gevers.
But when reached for comment, both Twitter and the White House vigorously denied the claim.
“We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Verge. “We proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government.”
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere also denied the report. “This is absolutely not true,” he told The Verge, “but we don’t comment on security procedures around the President’s social media accounts.”
China’s version of the GDPR.
China Releases First Draft of Personal Information Protection Law
Covington & Burling have published a client advisory that will be of interest to many readers. It begins:
On October 21, 2020, the National People’s Congress (“NPC”), China’s top legislative body, released its first draft of the Personal Information Protection Law (the “Draft Law”) for public comment (official Chinese version available here). The period for public comment ends on November 19, 2020 and comments can be submitted through NPC’s official website.
As the country’s first comprehensive law in the area of personal information protection, the Draft Law aims to “protect the rights and interests of individuals,” “regulate personal information processing activities,” “safeguard the lawful and orderly flow of data,” and “facilitate reasonable use of personal information” (Art. 1).
Although bearing a resemblance to the European Union’s (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and other recent privacy legislation in major jurisdictions in some important areas, the Draft Law introduces a number of provisions that are consistent with recent trends in other Chinese laws in the areas of data and technology, such as the draft Data Security Law and the newly enacted Export Control Law. These include, for example, rules establishing extraterritoriality of the Draft Law and a “black list” that would restrict or prohibit listed foreign organizations from receiving personal information from China.
Read more on Cov.com (pdf).
Confirmation?
https://www.bespacific.com/consumer-reports-study-finds-marketplace-demand-for-privacy-and-security/
Consumer Reports Study Finds Marketplace Demand for Privacy and Security
Consumer Reports – “American consumers are increasingly concerned about privacy and data security when purchasing new products and services, which may be a competitive advantage to companies that take action towards these consumer values, a new Consumer Reports study finds. The new study, “Privacy Front and Center” from CR’s Digital Lab with support from Omidyar Network, looks at the commercial benefits for companies that differentiate their products based on privacy and data security. The study draws from a nationally representative CR survey of 5,085 adult U.S. residents conducted in February 2020, a meta-analysis of 25 years of public opinion studies, and a conjoint analysis that seeks to quantify how consumers weigh privacy and security in their hardware and software purchasing decisions. Given the rapid proliferation of internet connected devices, the rise in data breaches and cyber attacks, and the demand from consumers for heightened privacy and security measures, there’s an undeniable business case for companies to invest in creating more private and secure products.
This study shows that raising the standard for privacy and security is a win-win for consumers and the companies,” said Ben Moskowitz, the director of the Digital Lab at Consumer Reports. “Given the rapid proliferation of internet connected devices, the rise in data breaches and cyber attacks, and the demand from consumers for heightened privacy and security measures, there’s an undeniable business case for companies to invest in creating more private and secure products.”..
Should I turn my blog over to my AI?
https://interestingengineering.com/machines-predicted-to-do-half-of-all-jobs-by-2025-per-report
Machines Predicted to Do Half Of All Jobs By 2025, per Report
Half of all work tasks will be carried out by machines by 2025, a World Economic Forum (WEF) report has predicted.
Though the oncoming "robot revolution” will create 97 million jobs worldwide, it will get rid of almost the same number, and will likely increase inequality and the digital divide, the think tank said.
The forecast is based on surveys carried out across 300 of the world's biggest companies, who between them employ approximately eight million people globally, the BBC reports.
Over 50 percent of employers surveyed said they expect the automation of certain roles in their companies to speed up in the coming years, and 43 percent feel they will cut jobs due to technology.
Administration and data processing jobs are the most likely to be cut by automation, WEF explained in its forecast, while new jobs are likely to emerge in care, big data, and the green economy.
Tweets indicate twits?
https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-artificial-intelligence-students-outcomes-based.html
Artificial intelligence can predict students' educational outcomes based on tweets
Ivan Smirnov, Leading Research Fellow of the Laboratory of Computational Social Sciences at the Institute of Education of HSE University, has created a computer model that can distinguish high academic achievers from lower ones based on their social media posts. The prediction model uses a mathematical textual analysis that registers users' vocabulary (its range and the semantic fields from which concepts are taken), characters and symbols, post length, and word length.
Every word has its own rating (a kind of IQ). Scientific and cultural topics, English words, and words and posts that are longer in length rank highly and serve as indicators of good academic performance. An abundance of emojis, words or whole phrases written in capital letters, and vocabulary related to horoscopes, driving, and military service indicate lower grades in school. At the same time, posts can be quite short—even tweets are quite informative. The study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), and an article detailing the study's results was published in EPJ Data Science.
Low hanging fruit.
https://www.bespacific.com/where-to-find-public-records-online/
Where to Find Public Records Online
Life Hacker – “You can use the internet to find almost anything: a good restaurant, a recording of a half-remembered old commercial, recommendations for a good book, a podcast about basically anything, and yes, even public records. While our most private information (usually) can’t be found online, you can track down items like birth certificates, marriage and divorce information, obituaries, licenses, and mortgage and bankruptcy info. Keep reading to learn where to find public records online. First, a brief note – All of the following web sites and methods of discovery are absolutely free, unless stated otherwise. There are many sites out there that advertise themselves as being free, but once you enter in the details of what you’re looking for, they’ll try to charge for their services—and even then, they typically are not providing anything that you can’t find yourself. If you do end up having to pay for something, it will most likely involve heading to a physical location (i.e., a courthouse) in order to procure a copy of a particular public document…”
Teflon management.
https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-10-23
So could police ask citizens for help identifying ‘bad guys?’
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/technology/facial-recognition-police.html
Activists Turn Facial Recognition Tools Against the Police
In early September, the City Council in Portland, Ore., met virtually to consider sweeping legislation outlawing the use of facial recognition technology. The bills would not only bar the police from using it to unmask protesters and individuals captured in surveillance imagery; they would also prevent companies and a variety of other organizations from using the software to identify an unknown person.
During the time for public comments, a local man, Christopher Howell, said he had concerns about a blanket ban. He gave a surprising reason.
“I am involved with developing facial recognition to in fact use on Portland police officers, since they are not identifying themselves to the public,” Mr. Howell said. Over the summer, with the city seized by demonstrations against police violence, leaders of the department had told uniformed officers that they could tape over their name. Mr. Howell wanted to know: Would his use of facial recognition technology become illegal?
Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, told Mr. Howell that his project was “a little creepy,” but a lawyer for the city clarified that the bills would not apply to individuals. The Council then passed the legislation in a unanimous vote.
Perspective.
Putting Responsible AI Into Practice
… Ethics frameworks and principles abound. AlgorithmWatch maintains a repository of more than 150 ethical guidelines. A meta-analysis of a half-dozen prominent guidelines identified five main themes: transparency, justice and fairness, non-maleficence, responsibility, and privacy. But even if there is broad agreement on the principles underlying responsible AI, how to effectively put them into practice remains unclear. Organizations are in various states of adoption, have a wide range of internal organizational structures, and are often still determining the appropriate governance frameworks to hold themselves accountable.
Suggested by my AI...
It’s time to rethink the legal treatment of robots
In this excerpt from "The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law", Ryan Abbott argues that laws should treat robots more like people.
...and we thought ‘accidental opt-in’ was a problem.
Google tests smart displays that activate without a wake word
A new feature being internally tested at Google could remove the need to say “Hey Google” before voicing commands to Nest Hub smart displays, Android Central reports. Instead, the feature codenamed “Blue Steel” could allow the device to simply sense your presence, and proactively listen for commands without first needing to hear the wake word.
Perspective.
https://venturebeat.com/2020/10/21/the-2020-data-and-ai-landscape/
The 2020 data and AI landscape
When COVID hit the world a few months ago, an extended period of gloom seemed all but inevitable. Yet many companies in the data ecosystem have not just survived but in fact thrived.
Perhaps most emblematic of this is the blockbuster IPO of data warehouse provider Snowflake that took place a couple of weeks ago and catapulted Snowflake to a $69 billion market cap at the time of writing – the biggest software IPO ever (see the S-1 teardown).
… Many economic factors are at play, but ultimately financial markets are rewarding an increasingly clear reality long in the making: To succeed, every modern company will need to be not just a software company but also a data company.
Sounds like a useful tool.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90565801/descript-video-editing
This app makes editing videos as easy as editing text
Media editing software Descript is becoming a full-blown video editor with multitrack tools, overlays, transitions, and more.
For the past few years, Descript has offered an intuitive way to edit podcasts, letting you cut, paste, and delete from a written transcript to modify the corresponding audio.
Now, Descript is applying that same idea to multitrack video editing. Instead of having to fiddle with video timelines in tools like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere, creators on YouTube or elsewhere can edit their videos just by rearranging the text of what they said.
My favorite was: “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.” Or maybe “Shakespeare lied.”
https://www.bespacific.com/satirist-tom-lehrer-has-put-his-songs-into-the-public-domain/
Satirist Tom Lehrer has put his songs into the public domain
Via Mary Whisner – news that Tom Lehrer Has Put His Songs into the Public Domain, Marketplac [if you are not familiar with his work, and have not been singing the lyrics to his songs like “Pollution” for many decades as have I, now is your chance to become a Lehrer enthusiast and an aficionado!)
Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer, https://tomlehrersongs.com/
Center for the Study of the Public Domain, Duke Law, https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/
So they really are asking Apple (et al) for backdoors only because it is cheaper?
The Police Can Probably Break Into Your iPhone
Jack Nicas reports that while law enforcement stokes fears of “going dark” because of inability to access encrypted iPhones, in reality, many law enforcement agencies can break into your smartphone:
That is because at least 2,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states now have tools to get into locked, encrypted phones and extract their data, according to years of public records collected in a report by Upturn, a Washington nonprofit that investigates how the police use technology.
At least 49 of the 50 largest U.S. police departments have the tools, according to the records, as do the police and sheriffs in small towns and counties across the country, including Buckeye, Ariz.; Shaker Heights, Ohio; and Walla Walla, Wash.
Read more on The New York Times.
Tighten down...
French Supervisory Authority Releases Strict Guidance on the Use of Facial Recognition Technology at Airports
On October 9, 2020, the French Supervisory Authority (“CNIL”) issued guidance on the use of facial recognition technology for identity checks at airports (available here, in French). The CNIL indicates that it has issued this guidance in response to a request from several operators and service providers of airports in France who are planning to deploy this technology on an experimental basis. In this blog post, we summarize the main principles that the CNIL says airports should observe when deploying biometric technology.
(Related) ...loosen up?
French Court of Cassation Decides That an Employer Can Use a Facebook Post to Dismiss an Employee
On September 30, 2020, the French Court of Cassation (“Court”) ruled in favor of an employer that dismissed an employee because of the contents of a Facebook post (the decision is available here, in French). In particular, the employee in this case posted a photograph of a new clothing collection of the employer on a personal Facebook account. This post could be seen by the employee’s “friends”, including those who worked for competing firms. As a result, a co-worker who was a “friend” of that employee sent the post to the employer. Posting the photograph was in breach of the employee’s confidentiality obligations under the employment contract. Thus, the employer asked a bailiff to access the employee’s Facebook account in order to obtain proof of the employee’s actions. The employer subsequently dismissed the employee for gross misconduct.
Did we see something similar in the EU or California? Did anyone try to calculate the numbers required?
New IAPP Report: Brazil’s Newly Activated LGPD Will Likely Create a Need for At Least 50,000 DPOs
Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais (LGPD), better known to the English-speaking world as Brazil’s new General Data Protection Law, has been active for a month now and if nothing else is going to be a major job creator for Latin America’s biggest nation. A new report from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) found that approximately 50,000 new data protection officers (DPOs) will be needed in the country to ensure that all of the organizations that it applies to are in compliance.
… The IAPP study is one of the first comprehensive look at the new law as its terms become active. The key takeaway is that since any organization that processes personal data in Brazil (pending company size requirements) must appoint DPOs even if it is not headquartered in the country, some 50,000 DPOs are expected to be needed in the very near future.
Worth a read…
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2020/10/artificial-intelligence-ai-9-realities-cio
Artificial Intelligence (AI): 9 things IT pros wish the CIO knew
CIOs and IT leaders need to know AI in reasonable depth to understand its pragmatic adoption. Otherwise, you may either overestimate or underestimate AI’s impact.
No surprise.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/20/1010891/doj-google-antitrust-lawsuit-monopoly/
The DOJ says Google monopolizes search. Here’s how.
The US Department of Justice and attorneys general from 11 Republican-led states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, alleging that the company maintains an illegal monopoly on online search and advertising.
The lawsuit follows a 16-month investigation, and repeated promises from President Trump to hold Big Tech to account amid unproven allegations of anti-conservative bias. But reports suggest the department was put under pressure by Attorney General William Barr to file the charges before the presidential election in two weeks’ time.
… The case centers on Google’s tactics and market dominance in search. It currently receives 80% of all search queries in the United States, and the DOJ says it uses the tens of billions of dollars of annual profits from search advertising to unfairly suppress its competition.
… Despite these allegations, the Department of Justice is not explicitly looking to break up Google or impose specific fines. Rather, it is asking for “structural relief as needed to cure any anticompetitive harm.”
… Several hours after the lawsuit was filed, the company called the lawsuit “deeply flawed” in a statement posted to its blog.
(Related) Another perspective.
Bill Barr's Google 'Antitrust Inquiry' Is A Weaponized Farce
Last month we noted how Bill Barr was rushing DOJ staffers (much to their chagrin) to launch his "antitrust inquiry" into Google. Why? Three reasons. One, it helps Trump allies and Google adversaries like "big telecom," Oracle, and Rupert Murdoch. Two, it helps put the utterly false narrative of "social media unfairly censors Conservatives" into headlines during an election. And three, it creates leverage over companies that have finally just begun to take online hate speech and disinformation (a cornerstone of Trumpism) seriously. Genuine concerns about "monopoly power" are the last thing on these folks' minds.
Right on cue, Bill Barr this morning announced that the Department of Justice is suing Google, claiming that the company's anticompetitive practices in arenas such as search "have had harmful effects on competition and consumers." The initial press release compares Google's dominance to historical natural monopolies of note, such as 80's era AT&T:
Entertaining Python students.
Bored at home? Here’s 10 handy tools you can build with Python
Perspective. Free eBook and Podcast.
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3586571/gartner-top-strategic-technology-trends-for-2021.html
Gartner: Top strategic technology trends for 2021
Companies need to focus on architecting resilience and accept that disruptive change is the norm, says research firm Gartner, which unveiled its annual look at the top strategic technology trends that organizations need to prepare for in the coming year.
Gartner unveiled this year's list at its flagship IT Symposium/Xpo Americas conference, which is being held virtually this year.
… Burke identified Gartner's top strategic technology trends for 2021
I’d like to see other countries/states/industries try this!
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand launches privacy breach reporting tool
You likely won’t see big breaking news headlines, but kudos to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand, who have just launched a new tool to help organizations and businesses determine whether they need to notify OPC of a privacy breach. As seen on their site:
Privacy Commissioner John Edwards says NotifyUs will help organisations determine whether a breach has caused, or could cause, serious harm, and guide them through the reporting process.
“We want the privacy breach pre-assessment and reporting process to be straightforward,” says Mr Edwards. “NotifyUs has undergone extensive testing ahead of today’s launch to ensure the guidance is clear and easy to follow. I encourage people to use it in advance of the new legislation taking effect on 1 December.”
Visit NotifyUs.
OPC’s also has new resources on privacy breach reporting, including a short e-learning module and breach reporting brochure.
Find out more on the OPC’s web site.
Vendors and clients, divided by a common language.
Tech Speak is the New Legalese When Negotiating With Software Vendors
A virtual panel from the Association of Corporate Counsel's Annual Meeting examined how knowing the true meaning behind key tech phrases can be the difference between success and failure when negotiating deals with vendors around software procurement or data handling.
Dealing with a foreseeable future.
Why Your Board Needs a Plan for AI Oversight
We can safely defer the discussion about whether artificial intelligence will eventually take over board functions. We cannot, however, defer the discussion about how boards will oversee AI — a discussion that’s relevant whether organizations are developing AI systems or buying AI-powered software. With the technology in increasingly widespread use, it’s time for every board to develop a proactive approach for overseeing how AI operates within the context of an organization’s overall mission and risk management.
The probable future?
Can Grand Juries Go Virtual … and Should They?: ‘Holding Court’ with Judge Glenn Grant in New Jersey
… Thanks to its unified structure and integrated computer system, the New Jersey courts made a relatively quick transition to working remotely this spring when the state was hit hard in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grant says that his CIO described what was accomplished in six days—getting court personnel up-and-working from home—as something that should have been done with six months of planning and six years of investment. “We really did have this extraordinary technological investment in our system,” Grant says. “But the pandemic expedited that transformation in an extraordinary way.”
Put this down in the “extraordinary” category, as well: New Jersey launched a pilot program in June to conduct grand jury proceedings remotely. As my friends at the New Jersey Law Journal have reported, the move to go remote drew criticism from both defense lawyers and prosecutors who expressed doubts that the pool of grand jurors could reflect the demographics of New Jersey as a whole. Critics also questioned whether grand jurors considering charging decisions from their homes and apartments could maintain the privacy inherent to the grand jury process.
(Related)
'This Is Going to Be Complicated': Georgia Federal Court Ponders Jury Trials Amid COVID-19
Getting jobs for my students.
Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education – classic apprenticeship program
“The Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) is a classic apprenticeship program that combines classroom learning with paid on-the-job experience, teaching skills in demand across an industry. A new report by Opportunity America president Tamar Jacoby and Brookings Institution senior fellow emeritus Ron Haskins draws on focus groups, an online survey and data from the state of Kentucky to shed light on the program and its outcomes for apprentices. Data show that FAME graduates in Kentucky earn between 60 percent and 100 percent more than other career and technical education graduates from the same community colleges. The message for policymakers: earn-and-learn training works, and the nation should redouble its efforts to take the model to scale.”
